“About a month ago I dropped a cup of tea on my foot and had a second degree burn so couldn’t run for a week,” she said.

“Thankfully it was far enough out not to affect me too much.

“The race had been an aim for quite a few months before, but I had up and down preparation for it.

“But in the last couple of weeks the training really came together and seemed to peak at just the right time.”

Her good cross country form - she anchored her University of Birmingham U20s team to gold at the National Relay at Mansfield last month - came on the back of a magnificent track season.

She lowered her 1500m personal best to 4min 19.63secs in July, 13 seconds lower than the mark at the start of the season, and also set a new 800m PB of 2min 07.28secs.

There were also silver medals to savour at the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Championships and national under 23s championships.

As well as a change in age group, Mari has also had to adapt to other changes this autumn including a move away from Leicester Coritanians and her long-term coach Bill Winter to train with Birchfield Harriers.

“It was sad, but Bill thought it was the best move for me,” she said.

“The club has split off into lots of separate groups and there was no longer a senior women’s team for me to run with.”